Obese women 'high cancer risk'

7th November 2007

A study funded by Cancer Research UK says that about 6,000 middle-aged or older women in the UK develop cancer each year because they are obese or overweight.

The research, published by the British Medical Journal, looked at 45,000 cases of cancer in one million women over seven years. It blamed excess fat for 50% of cases of womb cancer and a type of oesophageal cancer. It follows a study by the World Cancer Research Fund which also warned that carrying excess weight significantly increased the risk of cancer.